29th July - 1st August

5th - 8th August

The last 72hrJam was the largest event we ever ran - and we're going to do another one in summer! As usual, this is the thread to discuss what we should do differently next time and when we should run the event!

So, things to talk about:

When do you want it run? The best time is probably the end of june or july - but what times could people make? What times do you guys want it?

What went well last time? What should we not change?

What went badly? What do you want to do differently?

We'll probably be doing another Exhibition game, but we'll put up a separate thread to discuss that.

Some suggestions that were already made:

More testing, more people playing in tests.

Themes (good themes.)

A subforum/dedicated page for the event.

What do you think of these ideas?

Those of you who are fans of speed-mapping, stay tuned - we might be having another smaller event for that some time soon.

Last year's contest was held at the end of July/beginning of August, which fit perfectly with my schedule. I got tooth surgery the day before the contest started, which left me unable to do a lot of things, so mapping the whole weekend was fun. I'm pretty sure this is s no brainier, but hopefully this year's jam is on a weekend.

It used to be a competition, but people got annoyed of having to judge the many entries.

I still think it was a very attractive type of competition, especially to new people.

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-big post warning-

The last time we ran a 72 hour contest it took 4 weeks to get each map played twice, at a rate of 6 tests per week (2 per day, 3 days a week). These got in the way of running normal impromptus (nobody wanted to participate in the day's third test), and the generally low quality of the maps began to wear down on people. For this reason, I think a public vote on every single map is pretty much a bad idea no matter what.

It would probably be possible to have a small private judging group go through and disqualify maps that are pretty much guaranteed not to win, getting a smaller pool of maps to have tested by everyone. However, as you said, this competition is attractive to newer mappers, and this system would be pretty much designed to exclude them.

(That's not to say that newer mappers are incapable of producing good maps, but it's usually how things go.)

What we tried to do for the last jam to make up for the lack of prizes was to recognize any notable works from the jam in an announcement at the conclusion of the jam. Here's the one from last winter. This sort of system doesn't have the same tension and release that a typical judging period does. As an entrant, if you're looking for any sort of competitive element, all you'll be able to do is make something and hope that you get recognized in the end.

I'd be interested in seeing a system where private judges can create a list of "titles" that entrants can earn, like "Best looking" or "Most innovative." Judging would be a relatively quick ordeal (no public judging period), entrants have something to strive for (other than making something for the sake of making it), and entries could be officially recognized in a more formal manner.

It might be possible to include the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes in this system, but for the reasons mentioned before, I don't recommend it. It's just not realistic to test every map equally, and the titles system isn't as effective if there's a "main" prize.

tl;dr: Having official recognition other than 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. and having it judged privately would allow us to include a competitive element in the Jam without the sorts of problems that our old public voting judgment system did.

It could be an optional theme. The counter to this of course is that it could help inspire people - a theme like "midsummer murders", say, is evocative and inspiring while not explicitly saying what people should do.

RE: Prizes: Jethro and Idolon have said very smart things about why we're not doing prizes. I rather like the idea of the Paper Plate Award style, though it needs further consideration.

One thing to note: "afterwards" is very difficult to do because we want to move straight on to the aftermath and celebration and things, so you might miss out on that.

It could be an optional theme. The counter to this of course is that it could help inspire people - a theme like "midsummer murders", say, is evocative and inspiring while not explicitly saying what people should do.

Click to expand...

But having themes basically requires mappers to have certain things in their maps- in this case, a theremin.

PRETZELS LIE. THEY MANIPULATE. THEY TEMPT YOU WITH HUNGER, BUT BRING YOU THE SUFFERING OF THIRST.

This time I won't be stupid enough to not submit my map in the submission thread. However, on the third day, the servers felt really underpopulated and people went all demoknight on my map. I'm looking for to this next one because a few people here such as myself will have vacation meaning that there may be more people this time???

The last time we ran a 72 hour contest it took 4 weeks to get each map played twice, at a rate of 6 tests per week (2 per day, 3 days a week). These got in the way of running normal impromptus (nobody wanted to participate in the day's third test), and the generally low quality of the maps began to wear down on people. For this reason, I think a public vote on every single map is pretty much a bad idea no matter what.

It would probably be possible to have a small private judging group go through and disqualify maps that are pretty much guaranteed not to win, getting a smaller pool of maps to have tested by everyone. However, as you said, this competition is attractive to newer mappers, and this system would be pretty much designed to exclude them.

(That's not to say that newer mappers are incapable of producing good maps, but it's usually how things go.)

What we tried to do for the last jam to make up for the lack of prizes was to recognize any notable works from the jam in an announcement at the conclusion of the jam. Here's the one from last winter. This sort of system doesn't have the same tension and release that a typical judging period does. As an entrant, if you're looking for any sort of competitive element, all you'll be able to do is make something and hope that you get recognized in the end.

I'd be interested in seeing a system where private judges can create a list of "titles" that entrants can earn, like "Best looking" or "Most innovative." Judging would be a relatively quick ordeal (no public judging period), entrants have something to strive for (other than making something for the sake of making it), and entries could be officially recognized in a more formal manner.

It might be possible to include the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes in this system, but for the reasons mentioned before, I don't recommend it. It's just not realistic to test every map equally, and the titles system isn't as effective if there's a "main" prize.

tl;dr: Having official recognition other than 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. and having it judged privately would allow us to include a competitive element in the Jam without the sorts of problems that our old public voting judgment system did.

Click to expand...

Yeah, going through the map pool and only selecting maps over a certain quality level for the judging period would help with the mass of map submissions.

There could also be some sort of participation medal/prize for new mappers who have made a fully functioning map (proper lighting, no leaks, no clipping brushes everywhere, logic works, etc.) even though it might not be good enough to win anything.

Categories like "Best Looking" and "Best Gameplay" sound neat too. They could be decided by a committee of 3 people who are experts in that field (more than three people never come to an agreement).

The category "Best Overall" should be a public vote. With 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and all.

I prefer June-July, since I maybe traveling in August-September. What I liked about the 2016 Winter Jam is the showcase of the staff's top favorites. And would like to see it in the summer one as well. I'm not too fond about giving participation awards to everyone.